August 29, 2015, marks the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which decimated New Orleans and other areas in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Because of Katrina — and later Rita along the Texas Gulf Coast and Wilma in South Florida — 2005 was a landmark year not only for us at Rentsys but for many of our customers as well. By year’s end, we had experienced 43 disaster declarations, some of which lasted for months or even over a year.

Steve O'Neal, a current account executive and former operations manager, spoke to us about some of the memorable declarations he recalls from August and September 2005.

Helping Keep Gas Prices Down

Mobile Command Center
Photo by Glen Boote

Off the coast of Louisiana, a critical oil terminal and one of its refineries lost communications after Katrina. Connectivity was (and is) a key part of the crude oil supply chain, as each facility needed to be able to communicate with and provide refined products to refineries around the country.

Coping With Gas Shortages and Sleeping in Motor Homes

Spare fuel tank for Mobile Claims Office
Photo by Glen Boote

Although gas production continued, supply was short in areas of the country that had been affected by Katrina. We witnessed the shortage firsthand during a declaration in Covington, LA, just 40 miles north of downtown New Orleans, where we deployed a Mobile Claims Office for an insurance company.

We’d come prepared with a gas tank to fuel the claims center, and because the mobile unit was deployed next to a gas station, people flocked to us looking for fuel when the gas station ran out.

We had to conserve fuel ourselves, as our team and the client had each deployed motor homes to sleep in. (The hotels that were open were full, and at one point our crew was asked to leave a hotel in Louisiana when the highway patrol commandeered it as a command post.) Some nights there were as many as 10 people sleeping in makeshift beds on the floors and couches in the motor homes.

Giving People a Place to Cash FEMA Checks

Mobile Banking Center in Pascagoula, MS
Photo by Glen Boote

Steve had been working more than 20 days straight when a bank in Pascagoula, MS declared. The company’s entire first floor — along with most of the town — was flooded. FEMA was cutting checks for recovery efforts, but there was nowhere in town for people to cash them, so our client wanted to resume operations in a Mobile Banking Center.

Once the branch was open, the bank gained several new customers who opened accounts so they could cash their FEMA checks. Despite dealing with their own crises in the aftermath of the hurricane, the bank’s employees had returned to work to help provide this critical service to the community. (Some employees even resorted to threading rope through their belt loops because they had no belts!) Since air-conditioned spaces were hard to find, many staff members brought their family members with them to the mobile unit.

Responding to the Aftermath

Meanwhile, even as we responded to declarations related to each of these storms, we maintained our regular testing schedule. "You’re not going to reschedule our test?" our Northern customers asked in shock. We had DR coordinators deployed all over the country for declarations and tests, but we were still able to respond to every call within our normal time frame.

Your cloud solution
could be missing something. We’re not talking about bandwidth, security or
service level agreements (though these things are all important). We’re
talking about customer service.

Often businesses evaluating potential cloud vendors
are focused so much on tech specs that they don’t think about the matter of
interacting with the vendor after the contract is signed. Sometimes this isn’t
an issue if you’ve chosen a good provider. Other times, however, you might find
that getting the support you need is like pulling teeth.

The following three categories can help you identify if a
potential service provider will be a help or hindrance to meeting your data and
application management goals.

Listening
Skills

Are the cloud provider’s representatives trying to sell
you services you don’t need, or are they dedicated to helping you build a
backup solution that’s right for you? To get the most value out of your
cloud solution, you need to make sure you’re not paying for products and
services that you won’t use or that don’t do what you need them to.

Technical
Assistance

What type of technical assistance does the provider
offer? Support options could include self-service, phone support, on-site,
in-house, outsourced or a combination.

It’s also important to know when assistance is available.
Is the support provider — whether it be your vendor or a third party — only
available during business hours? Is the company in the same time zone as you? Be sure to find out what level of support to expect and
make sure you’re comfortable with it.

Technician
Certifications

Knowing who will
be offering your support can be almost as important as knowing the type of support you’ll receive. If
you’re using a managed cloud service, are the people who will be handling your
data certified engineers? Even if you manage your own data, will you have
access to qualified help desk agents to resolve any issues?

Working with the right vendor can make a world of
difference in how effective your cloud solution is for your business. To read
more about best practices for implementing a cloud solution, read this
post.